One
would imagine that PCP would have a ready use in the business realm of
application. This is, after all, a world in which constructivist
ontology
pertains: "truths" and "absolutes" are frequently matters
for negotiation, agreement, and disagreement between differing
stakeholders who
take a different perspective on issues as a function of their role,
experience,
or business function. Nevertheless, a
preference
for naïve realist
notions of "objectivity" persists, and one might be forgiven for
imagining that
the only way that PCP might make a significant impact on practitioners'
attention is by associating our concepts or techniques with the latest
managerial
fashion.

The
current
interest in knowledge management provides an example. While
organisations seem
clear about the need for sophisticated information systems to store,
retrieve
and disseminate knowledge in the service of competitive advantage, they
are
much less certain about what knowledge is, how it might be identified,
and
particularly, how it might be elicited. A combination of Kelly and
Polanyi
would have much to offer; at present, the occasional article proposing
the repertory
gridas a
tacit knowledge elicitation device
(e.g. Jankowicz, 2001) is all that has attracted managerial attention.

However, the
repertory grid does have a recognised, albeit minor, place in Human
Resource
Management, (HRM) where its use as a job analysis
techniqueleads to improved job descriptions,
training
content
specification, and as a background to job evaluation, largely because
it
encourages careful thought about precisely what kind of behaviour makes
a
difference between successful and less successful job performance. Such
specificity
is particularly important in performance
appraisal, a procedure by which an
employee’s performance is reviewed periodically and fresh targets set.

The repertory
grid can also be used in team-building
and climate setting, by means of
an exchange and collaborative examination of constructs applied to some
mutually important topic by people who must learn to work together

Sections
to be
completed:

(Training evaluation)

(Decision making)

(Expert systems &
more generally, knowledge management)

References

Jankowicz
A.D.(2001) Why does subjectivity make us nervous? Making the tacit
explicit. Journal of Intellectual Capital 2, 1, 61-73